Ira Remsen (February 10, 1846 – March 4, 1927) was an American

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

who introduced organic chemistry research and education in the United States along the lines of German universities where he received his early training. He was the first professor of chemistry and the second president of

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

. He founded the ''

American Chemical Journal The ''Journal of the American Chemical Society'' (also known as JACS) is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal that was established in 1879 by the American Chemical Society. The journal has absorbed two other publications in its history, the ...

'', which he edited from 1879 to 1914. The discovery of

saccharin Saccharin, also called saccharine, benzosulfimide, or E954, or used in saccharin sodium or saccharin calcium forms, is a non-nutritive artificial sweetener. Saccharin is a sultam that is about 500 times sweeter than sucrose, but has a bitter or ...

was made in his laboratory by Constantine Fahlberg who worked in collaboration with Remsen but patented the synthesis on his own, earning the ire of Remsen.

Early life

Ira Remsen was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

on February 10, 1846. He was the son of James Vanderbelt Remsen (1818–1892) and Rosanna née Secor (1823–1856) who came from family of Dutch settlers. His mother had Huguenot ancestors. He went to the New York Free Academy where he studied Greek, Latin, maths and sciences. He also attended popular lectures by

Robert Ogden Doremus Robert Ogden Doremus (11 January 1824 – 22 March 1906) was a United States chemist and physician. Biography Doremus was the son of philanthropist Sarah Platt Doremus and her merchant husband Thomas. He studied at Columbia, and graduated from N ...

at the Cooper Institute. He did not complete his bachelor's degree but apprenticed for a while under a homeopathic physician who was on the faculty of New York Homeooathic Medical School. He dropped out of this as well and joined the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University receiving an MD in 1867 with a thesis on fatty degeneration of the liver. He then practiced at Irving Place, New York and a year later sought to study chemistry in Germany. He went to the University of Munich where he worked under

Jacob Volhard Jacob Volhard (4 June 1834 – 14 January 1910) was the German chemist who discovered, together with his student Hugo Erdmann, the Volhard–Erdmann cyclization reaction. He was also responsible for the improvement of the Hell–Volhard–Zel ...

(1834–1910) as well as one series of lectures under

Justus von Liebig Justus ''Freiherr'' von Liebig (12 May 1803 – 18 April 1873) was a Germans, German scientist who made major contributions to the theory, practice, and pedagogy of chemistry, as well as to agricultural and biology, biological chemistry; he is ...

(1803–1873) who was the main attraction for Remsen to move to Germany. He then went to the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

, on the recommendation of

Friedrich Wöhler Friedrich Wöhler Royal Society of London, FRS(For) HonFRSE (; 31 July 180023 September 1882) was a German chemist known for his work in both organic chemistry, organic and inorganic chemistry, being the first to isolate the chemical elements be ...

, and studied organic chemistry under Rudolph Fittig (1835–1910). His 1870 doctorate was on investigations on piperic acid and its derivatives. He worked as an assistant to Fittig from 1870 to 1872 and during this time he met

William Ramsay Sir William Ramsay (; 2 October 1852 – 23 July 1916) was a Scottish chemist who discovered the noble gases and received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1904 "in recognition of his services in the discovery of the inert gaseous elements ...

(1852–1916). He married Elisabeth Hilleard Mallory on April 3, 1875, in New York City, New York. They had two children together. Their son,

Ira Mallory Remsen Ira Mallory Remsen (May 11, 1876 – November 29, 1928), known locally as Rem Remsen, was an American painter, playwright and Bohemian Club member. He was the son of Dr. Ira Remsen chemist and former president of Johns Hopkins University. Remsen ...

(1876–1928), became an artist and playwright living in

Carmel-by-the-Sea, California Carmel-by-the-Sea (), commonly known simply as Carmel, is a city in Monterey County, California, located on the Central Coast of California. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 3,220, down from 3,722 a ...

Career

In 1872, after researching pure chemistry at

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (; ), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The University of Tübingen is one of eleven German Excellenc ...

, Remsen returned to the United States and became a professor at

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim ...

, where he wrote the popular text ''Theoretical Chemistry''. Remsen's book and reputation brought him to the attention of

Daniel Coit Gilman Daniel Coit Gilman (; July 6, 1831 – October 13, 1908) was an American educator and academic. Gilman was instrumental in founding the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale College, and subsequently served as the second president of the University ...

, who invited him to become one of the original faculty of

. Remsen accepted and founded the department of chemistry there, overseeing his own laboratory. In 1879, Remsen founded the ''

'', which he edited for 35 years. He was elected as a member to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 1879. In 1879 Constantine Fahlberg, working with Remsen in a post-doctoral capacity, made an accidental discovery that changed Remsen's career. Eating rolls at dinner after a long day in the lab researching

coal tar Coal tar is a thick dark liquid which is a by-product of the production of coke and coal gas from coal. It is a type of creosote. It has both medical and industrial uses. Medicinally it is a topical medication applied to skin to treat psoria ...

derivatives, Fahlberg noticed that the rolls tasted initially sweet but then bitter. Since his wife tasted nothing strange about the rolls, Fahlberg tasted his fingers and noticed that the bitter taste was probably from one of the chemicals in his lab. The next day at his lab he tasted the chemicals that he had been working with the previous day and discovered that it was the oxidation of o-toluenesulfonamide he had tasted the previous evening. He named the substance

and he and his research partner Remsen published their finding in 1880. Later Remsen became angry after Fahlberg, in patenting saccharin (along with his uncle Adolph Moritz List), claimed that he alone had discovered saccharin. Remsen had no interest in the commercial success of saccharin, from which Fahlberg profited, but he was incensed at the perceived dishonesty of not crediting him as the head of the laboratory. Fahlberg would soon grow wealthy, while Remsen merely grew irritated, believing he deserved credit for substances produced in his laboratory. In a letter to Scottish chemist

, Remsen commented, "Fahlberg is a scoundrel. It nauseates me to hear my name mentioned in the same breath with him." The controversy would enter court when Constantine Fahlberg, Adolph List, George Merck and Theodore Weicker went to court to sue A. Klipstein & Company of New York for patent violation. Klipstein used the claim that Remsen and Fahlberg were involved in the discovery and that Fahlberg had falsely claimed himself as the inventor. Remsen's testimony was also included in the case but the documents are lost. The suit was ultimately dropped. When the American Chemical Society gave him the

Priestley medal The Priestley Medal is the highest honor conferred by the American Chemical Society (ACS) and is awarded for distinguished service in the field of chemistry. Established in 1922, the award is named after Joseph Priestley, one of the discoverers of ...

in 1923 the citation would mention that Remsen served the science of chemistry and sought no commercial gains from his work. Remsen jhu coll-0002 07525

Throughout his academic career, Remsen was known as an excellent teacher, rigorous in his expectations but patient with the beginner. "His lectures to beginners were models of didactic exposition, and many of his graduate students owe much of their later success in their own lecture rooms to the pedagogical training received from attendance upon Remsen's lectures to freshmen." Remsen made his teaching laboratory centric. He founded the ''American Chemical Journal'' that he edited out of Baltimore and competed with the ''Journal of the American Chemical Society'' run by the American Chemical Society. The latter journal did not publish much in organic chemistry. Remsen had joined the ACS in 1878 but he let his membership expire. When he rejoined he was elected president in 1902. In 1913 he allowed his journal to be merged into the ACS journal. In 1901 Remsen was appointed the president of Johns Hopkins, where he proceeded to found a School of Engineering and helped establish the school as a research university. He introduced many of the German laboratory techniques he had learned and wrote several important chemistry textbooks. In 1912 he stepped down as president, due to ill health, and retired to

Carmel, California Carmel-by-the-Sea (), commonly known simply as Carmel, is a city in Monterey County, California, located on the Central Coast of California. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 3,220, down from 3,722 a ...

. While serving as a president of Johns Hopkins, he also took part in civil projects. He served on the Baltimore School Commission in efforts to improve the infrastructure of secondary education. In 1906 he was also involved in improvements to the Baltimore sewerage system. He also served on the Maryland Good Roads Commission. In 1909 he was posted as chairman of a board that dealt with food purity under the department of agriculture. The board came to be popularly called the "Remsen Board". There was considerable pressure from manufacturers to vilify the members of the board who were criticized in the press. A cartoon from this period depicted him sitting on a board with nails.

Death

He died on March 4, 1927, in

. His ashes are interred behind a plaque in the chemistry building on the Homewood campus at Johns Hopkins University.

Legacy

In the 37 years of his service he guided 107 PhD students. In 1925 eighty-four of his students held positions as professors and forty were heads of chemistry departments in the US. After his death, the new chemistry building, completed in 1924, was named after him at Johns Hopkins. His ashes are located behind a plaque in Remsen Hall; he is the only person buried on campus. His Baltimore house was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

and declared a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...

in 1975. Remsen Hall in

Queens College Queens College (QC) is a public college in the New York City borough of Queens. Part of the City University of New York system, Queens College occupies an campus primarily located in Flushing. Queens College was established in 1937 and offe ...

is also named for him.

Remsen Award

In 1946, to commemorate the centenary of Remsen, the Maryland chapter of the

American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all ...

, began awarding the Remsen award, in his honor. Awardees are frequently of the highest caliber, and included a sequence of 16

Nobel laureates The Nobel Prizes (, ) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make outstanding contributions in th ...

between 1950 and 1980. ;Recipients: * 1946:

Roger Adams Roger Adams (January 2, 1889 – July 6, 1971) was an American organic chemist who developed the eponymous Adams' catalyst, and helped determine the composition of natural substances such as complex vegetable oils and plant alkaloids. He isolat ...

* 1947: Samuel C. Lind * 1948:

Elmer V. McCollum Elmer Verner McCollum (March 3, 1879 – November 15, 1967) was an American biochemist known for his work on the influence of diet (nutrition), diet on health.Kruse, 1961. McCollum is also remembered for starting the first laboratory rat, rat col ...

* 1949:

Joel H. Hildebrand Joel Henry Hildebrand (November 16, 1881 – April 30, 1983) was an American educator and a pioneer chemist. He was a major figure in physical chemistry research specializing in liquids and nonelectrolyte solutions. Education and professor ...

* 1950: Edward C. Kendall Nobel prize medal

* 1951:

Hugh Stott Taylor Sir Hugh Stott Taylor (6 February 1890 – 17 April 1974) was an English chemist primarily interested in catalysis.Who Was Who, Published by A&C Black Limited In 1925, in a landmark contribution to catalytic theory, Taylor suggested that a cat ...

* 1952:

W. Mansfield Clark William Mansfield Clark (17 August 1884 – 19 January 1964) was an American chemist and professor at the Johns Hopkins University. He studied oxidation-reduction reactions and was a pioneer of medical biochemistry. Clark was born in Tivoli, New ...

* 1953: Edward L. Tatum Nobel prize medal

* 1954:

Vincent du Vigneaud Vincent du Vigneaud (May 18, 1901 – December 11, 1978) was an American biochemist. He was recipient of the 1955 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his work on biochemically important sulphur compounds, especially for the first synthesis of a polypep ...

* 1955: Willard F. Libby Nobel prize medal

* 1956:

Farrington Daniels Farrington Daniels (March 8, 1889 – June 23, 1972) was an American physical chemist who is considered one of the pioneers of the modern direct use of solar energy. Biography Daniels was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on March 8, 1889. Daniel ...

* 1957:

Melvin Calvin Melvin Ellis Calvin (April 8, 1911 – January 8, 1997) was an American biochemist known for discovering the Calvin cycle along with Andrew Benson and James Bassham, for which he was awarded the 1961 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He spent most of ...

* 1958:

Robert B. Woodward Robert Burns Woodward (April 10, 1917 – July 8, 1979) was an American Organic chemistry, organic chemist. He is considered by many to be the preeminent synthetic organic chemist of the twentieth century, having made many key contributions ...

* 1959:

Edward Teller Edward Teller (; January 15, 1908 – September 9, 2003) was a Hungarian and American Theoretical physics, theoretical physicist and chemical engineer who is known colloquially as "the father of the hydrogen bomb" and one of the creators of ...

* 1960:

Henry Eyring (chemist) Henry Eyring (February 20, 1901 – December 26, 1981) was a Mexico-born United States theoretical chemist whose primary contribution was in the study of chemical reaction rates and intermediates. Eyring developed the Absolute Rate Theory or Tr ...

* 1961: Herbert C. Brown Nobel prize medal

* 1962:

George Porter George Porter, Baron Porter of Luddenham, (6 December 1920 – 31 August 2002) was a British chemist. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1967. Education and early life Porter was born in Stainforth, near Thorne, in the then West ...

* 1963: Harold C. Urey Nobel prize medal

* 1964:

Paul Doughty Bartlett Paul Doughty Bartlett (August 14, 1907 – October 11, 1997) was an American chemist. Life and career Bartlett was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan and grew up in Indianapolis. He received his B.A. from Amherst College in 1928. After his graduation ...

* 1965: James R. Arnold * 1966:

Paul H. Emmett Paul Hugh Emmett (September 22, 1900 – April 22, 1985) was an American chemist best known for his pioneering work in the field of catalysis and for his work on the Manhattan Project during World War II. He spearheaded the research to separate is ...

* 1967: Marshall W. Nirenberg Nobel prize medal

* 1968:

Har Gobind Khorana Har Gobind Khorana (9 January 1922 – 9 November 2011) was an Indian-American biochemist. While on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, he shared the 1968 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Marshall W. Nirenberg and ...

* 1969:

Albert L. Lehninger Albert Lester Lehninger (February 17, 1917 – March 4, 1986) was an American chemist in the field of Biological thermodynamics, bioenergetics. He made fundamental contributions to the current understanding of metabolism at a molecular level. In ...

* 1970: George S. Hammond * 1971:

George C. Pimentel George Claude Pimentel (May 2, 1922 – June 18, 1989) was a preeminent chemist and researcher, the inventor of the chemical laser, who was also dedicated to science education and public service. He developed the technique of matrix isolation in ...

* 1972: Charles H. Townes Nobel prize medal

* 1973: Frank H. Westheimer * 1974: Elias J. Corey Nobel prize medal

* 1975:

Henry Taube Henry Taube (November 30, 1915 – November 16, 2005) was a Canadian-born American chemist who was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for "his work in the mechanisms of electron-transfer reactions, especially in metal complexes." He ...

* 1976: William N. Lipscomb Jr. Nobel prize medal

* 1977:

Ronald Breslow Ronald Charles David Breslow (March 14, 1931 – October 25, 2017) was an American chemist from Rahway, New Jersey. He was University Professor at Columbia University, where he was based in the Department of Chemistry and affiliated with the Depa ...

* 1978:

John Charles Polanyi John Charles Polanyi (; born 23 January 1929) is a German-born Canadian chemist. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research in chemical kinetics. Polanyi was born into the prominent Hungarian Polányi (Pollacsek) fami ...

* 1979: Harry B. Gray Wolf prize icon

* 1980:

Roald Hoffman Roald Hoffmann (born Roald Safran; July 18, 1937) is a Polish-American theoretical chemist who won the 1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He has also published plays and poetry. He is the Frank H. T. Rhodes Professor of Humane Letters Emeritus at C ...

* 1981:

Koji Nakanishi was a Japanese chemist who studied bioorganic chemistry and natural products. He served as Centennial Professor of Chemistry and chair of the Chemistry Department at Columbia University. Early life Nakanishi was born in Hong Kong on May 11, 19 ...

* 1982: Harden McConnell Wolf prize icon

* 1983:

George M. Whitesides George McClelland Whitesides (born August 3, 1939) is an American chemist and professor of chemistry at Harvard University. He is best known for his work in the areas of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, organometallic chemistry, molecula ...

* 1984:

Earl L. Muetterties Earl Muetterties (June 23, 1927 – January 12, 1984), was an Americans, American inorganic chemist born in Illinois, who is known for his experimental work with boranes, homogeneous catalysis, heterogeneous catalysis, Fluxional molecule, fluxion ...

* 1985: Richard N. Zare * 1986:

Gilbert Stork Gilbert Stork (December 31, 1921 – October 21, 2017) was a Belgian-American organic chemist. For a quarter of a century he was the Eugene Higgins Professor of Chemistry Emeritus at Columbia University. He is known for making significant contri ...

* 1987:

Stephen J. Lippard Stephen James Lippard (born October 12, 1940) is the Arthur Amos Noyes Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is considered one of the founders of bioinorganic chemistry, studying the interactions of ...

* 1988:

Mildred Cohn Mildred Cohn (July 12, 1913 – October 12, 2009) was an American biochemist who furthered understanding of biochemistry, biochemical processes through her study of chemical reactions within animal cell (biology), cells. She was a pioneer in ...

* 1989:

K. Barry Sharpless Karl Barry Sharpless (born April 28, 1941) is an American stereochemist. He is a two-time Nobel laureate in chemistry, known for his work on stereoselective reactions and click chemistry. Sharpless was awarded half of the 2001 Nobel Prize i ...

* 1990: Robert G. Bergman Wolf prize icon

* 1991:

Rudolph A. Marcus Rudolph Arthur Marcus (born July 21, 1923) is a Canadian-born American chemist who received the 1992 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his contributions to the theory of electron transfer reactions in chemical systems". Marcus theory, named after hi ...

* 1992:

William Klemperer William A. Klemperer (October 6, 1927 – November 5, 2017) was an American chemist, chemical physicist and molecular spectroscopist. Klemperer is most widely known for introducing molecular beam methods into chemical physics research, greatly ...

* 1993:

Christopher T. Walsh Christopher T. Walsh (February 16, 1944 – January 10, 2023) was a Hamilton Kuhn professor of biological chemistry and pharmacology at Harvard Medical School. His research focused on enzymes and enzyme inhibition, and most recently focused on ...

* 1994:

Edward I. Solomon Edward I. Solomon (born 1946) is the Monroe E. Spaght Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University. He is an elected member of the United States National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science ...

* 1995:

Alfred G. Redfield Alfred G. Redfield (March 11, 1929 – July 24, 2019) was an American physicist and biochemist. In 1955 he published the Redfield relaxation theory, effectively moving the practice of NMR or Nuclear magnetic resonance from the realm of classi ...

* 1996: David A. Evans * 1997: William Hughes Miller * 1998: Peter Dervan * 1999: * 2000:

Alexander Pines Alexander Pines (; June 22, 1945 – November 1, 2024) was an American chemist. He was the Glenn T. Seaborg Professor Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley, Chancellor's Professor Emeritus and Professor of the Graduate School, University ...

* 2001:

Ad Bax Adriaan "Ad" Bax (born 1956) is a Dutch-American molecular biophysicist who is a Distinguished Investigator at the National Institutes of Health. He is the Chief of the Section on Biophysical NMR Spectroscopy in the Laboratory of Chemical Physics ...

* 2002: * 2003:

Henry F. Schaefer III Henry Frederick "Fritz" Schaefer III (born June 8, 1944) is an American computational, physical, and theoretical chemist. Schaefer is the Graham Perdue Professor of Chemistry at the University of Georgia, where he is also the director of its Ce ...

* 2004:

Samuel Danishefsky Samuel J. Danishefsky (born March 10, 1936) is an American chemist working as a professor at both Columbia University and the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. Birth and education Samuel J. Danishefsky was born in 1936 i ...

* 2005:

Judith P. Klinman Judith P. Klinman (born April 17, 1941, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American chemist, biochemist, and molecular biologist known for her work on enzyme catalysis. She became the first female professor in the physical sciences at the Uni ...

* 2006: Gabor A. Somorjai Wolf prize icon

* 2007: * 2008: John C. Tully * 2009: Jean Frechet * 2010: John T. Groves * 2011: Graham R. Fleming * 2012: Daniel G. Nocera * 2013: Eric Jacobsen * 2014: Emily A. Carter * 2015:

JoAnne Stubbe JoAnne Stubbe (born June 11, 1946) is an American chemist best known for her work on ribonucleotide reductases, for which she was awarded the National Medal of Science in 2009. In 2017, she retired as a professor of chemistry and biology at the M ...

* 2016: Charles M. Lieber Wolf prize icon

* 2017:

Robert H. Grubbs Robert Howard Grubbs ForMemRS (February 27, 1942 – December 19, 2021) was an American chemist and the Victor and Elizabeth Atkins Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. He was a co-recipient o ...

* 2018:

Chad Mirkin Chad Alexander Mirkin (born November 23, 1963) is an American chemist. He is the George B. Rathmann professor of chemistry, professor of medicine, professor of materials science and engineering, professor of biomedical engineering, and profess ...

* 2019: Catherine J. Murphy * 2020: Tom W. Muir * 2021: Todd Martinez * 2022: Scott Miller * 2023: Steven SibenerRemsen Award of the American Chemical Society
/ref>

References

External links

*
Papers of Ira Remsen
{{DEFAULTSORT:Remsen, Ira 1846 births 1927 deaths American chemists Johns Hopkins University faculty Williams College faculty Presidents of Johns Hopkins University People from Carmel-by-the-Sea, California Presidents of the United States National Academy of Sciences Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons alumni Members of the American Philosophical Society